I arrived in Fairbanks 3.5 months ago
tomorrow, on a cold, dark March 19, and saw a sheer green gauze scarf
of Aurora Borealis. In the first few days, I met the Little Dragon
who was to be my closest companion for the succeeding 3 months and
went to an Ice Sculpture Park, and in the following weeks, hiked,
skiied, walked, sang, danced, saw caribou, Dall sheep, orcas, moose,
bears, eagles, and watched a few steps of the Little Dragon's
development toward becoming a Real Person. I also had the
opportunity to get to know my more grown up Alaskan relatives better
than ever before, and meet some fantastic friends (mostly dancers)
When I arrived tLD was just starting to
turn herself from stomach to back and the reverse. Over the course
of 3 months, she worked through a number of phases in a similar
pattern: accidentally discovering a new motion and getting startled
by its occurrence to figuring out how to do it intentionally, and
then doing it all the time. Rolling, scooching, crawling,
climbing...any day she'll be walking! She progressed from occasional
vowels to singing herself to sleep (she had great exercises for
relaxing the vocal cords), to babbling at high volume all day long.
Including saying “alligator” and “jacket” because she's just
that smart! She actually said “ga ga goo goo” on more than one
occasion, although she prefers “goo ga”. It was fascinating to
see her realize or develop wants as opposed to needs, and preferences
as we introduced her to different food options. Sweet potatoes- yes,
peas- no. And she snorts.
One weekend, my aunt and I hiked in the White
Mountains on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Most of our trail was firmly
packed, unless we ventured to one side or another, where we would
suddenly sink up to a knee. After about 5 miles, we were heading out
to an overlook spot that went off to the side of the main trail. As
a consequence of being off of the main trail, instead of sinking into
the snow when we drifted, we sank into the snow on unpredictable
steps. 5 steps on the surface, 1 sinks, 1 up, 2 down, and so on. We
prevailed, and got a pretty good stair-stepper work out, and a
fantastic view!! After some pictures and snacks, we made our way
back to the packed trail, again never knowing if the next step would
be on the snow surface or on the ground.
On another weekend, my aunt and I went
cross country skiing. It was a beautiful day, and we warmed up
quickly. A style of skiing that I'd not done before but is
apparently popular there is skate-skiing. While I desperately
attempted to skate-ski, my aunt zipped back and forth ahead of me,
much like a puppy!
Also largely due to the influence of my
aunt and cousin, I participated in my first 5K! 3 runs, 2 walks, and
a 10K costumed walk/run. From not being a runner, I very nearly miss
it when I don't go, and cut my 5K time from about 36 minutes to 30!
In the 10K, our group was the monsters from the movie 'Monsters Vs
Aliens', along with Galaxar, and I was The Missing Link, which was a
pretty good look for me if I do say so myself ;-) We didn't win any
prizes, but were recognized by a number of people in the 8-10 year
old crowd, so we considered it a success! That was also the Midnight
Sun Run on the summer solstice, which starts at 10 PM, and
participants are named in the paper if they finish before midnight,
which we did :-) After my first 5k, my aunt, uncle, and I went to
Chena Hot Springs to soak and relax for a while.
What else...I got into a couple
ballroom dance groups, and through them made some amazing new friends
who sorely tempt me to move to Fairbanks more permanently, above the
appeal of family. In April one of the main ballroom teachers
encouraged me to participate in their annual dance contest, and out
of 9 couples, my partner, who I'd met the night before, and I came in
4th in the Swing contest, which was half WestCoast and
half East coast. The biggest drawback I see to Fairbanks however,
other than winter, is the nearly complete lack of lindy hop. There
are about 3 lindy hoppers in residence that I know of, and 2 of them
are follows, so I'd have to lead, and...it's still not the same. It
was great fun taking classes in polka, Viennese waltz, East coast
swing, and samba and in social dances, learning/reviewing rumba,
foxtrot, American waltz, cha cha cha, salsa, west coast swing,
hustle, and maybe a couple other styles.
Beyond Fairbanks –
For my cousin's
birthday, the family trooped down to Denali to hike and see what we
could see. We picnicked at Horseshoe Trail and hiked to the top of
Mt Healy on the first day, and wandered around the Savage River on
the second day. The Little Dragon came along, of course, and she
slept through nearly all of the hiking. We walked across a
miniglacier, and saw 2 moose, a handful of Dall sheep, a caribou, a
grizzly bear and her cub, possibly another grizzly, and maybe an
eagle or two! The weekend after, my cousin-in-law and I went on a
sightseeing cruise out of Valdez (after the original plan of going to
a similar thing out of Whittier with the the rest of the family fell
through). On the drive down we saw a few moose, a handful of
caribou, a critter we're calling a bison – you can't prove it
wasn't, it was near a sign about bison in the area! - a LOT of bald
eagles, tundra swans, and a porcupine...and in town we found a black bear. From the
boat, we saw sea otters, which are adorable!!!, sea lions, harbor
seals, gulls, terns, pigeon guillemot (black and white birds with red
feet). We visited a couple glaciers, and from the boat watched a big
gorgeous one the name of which I'm forgetting calve into the bay.
Beautiful ice bergs and smaller hunks of ice, the beautiful glacier
blue. I'm using the word “beautiful” a lot, but if any area
merits the term, it's there. On June 1 we drove back up to
Fairbanks, and got to have the novelty of getting snowed on in June
as we passed through the mountains.
On June 23, after these adventures and
more, I took a flight to Juneau where I stayed for a day, made some
temporary acquaintances, and embarked for 3 days on a ferry to
Bellingham, WA. I got to see a bit of Sitka and Ketchikan, and saw
Petersburg and Skagway from the deck, chatted with other passengers,
and added orcas and porpoises to my list of seen sea animals! In a
fortunate happenstance, I got a private tour of the Bridge, met the
captain, and heard all about how the radars worked, how the boat
works, different jets and propellers used to move it in various
directions, and a fantastic view out over the bow.
From Bellingham to Seattle, I got a ride with some
friends I'd made on the ferry, where the incomparable Jenn
Odell picked me up and graciously hosted me for several days, showing
me around and making sure that I was entertained throughout my stay.
I got to see much of Seattle (it was my first real visit there), and
got a hefty taste of Seattle flavor when Jenn and I stumbled upon
Seattle Pride as we headed into town on Sunday! It was also a
delight to visit with other college friends who'd migrated up that
way, namely on a dinner with Katie and Andy before they went off on
vacation and Evan whom Jenn and I got to distract from his job! As I
write this, I'm on the train to visit more such lovely people in
Sacramento, CA! But while there are seat-side power outlets for
everyone, there isn't internet except maybe in the sleeper cars, so
I'll be posting after I arrive in Sacramento. In the meantime, check
out pictures on facebook, and have a great
morning/afternoon/evening/night!
Now, I'm finally posting this from the train, en route from Sacramento to San Francisco, because apparently some commuter lines have free wi-fi ;-)
